South-North-U.S. Foreign Ministers Meets At ARF

Foreign Ministers from the South, the North, and the U.S. will meet to discuss the issues of the Korean peninsula at the Foreign Ministers Meeting of the 8th Asian Regional Forum (ARF) in Hanoi, Vietnam, July 25.

A government high official said to ``expect a future contact with them because Han Seong-Soo, the South Foreign Affairs-Trade Minister, Colin Powell, the U.S. Secretary of State, and Baik Nam-Soon, the North Foreign Minister, will participate in the ARF Foreign Minister meeting.

Consequently, the frozen trilateral relationship since the inauguration of the Bush administration is expected to find a breakthrough through the ARF meetings.

Foreign Minister Han and U.S. Secretary of State Powell will have a Korea-U.S. Foreign Minister meeting in Seoul on July 27-28 right after their visits to Hanoi on July 24-26.

Belgium ambassador Koenraad Rouvroy, who concurrently holds the position of ambassador to the North, briefed to the press yesterday in his residence, Itaewon, that ``the North Korean authorities expressed their intention to participate in the Foreign Ministers meeting when I was in the North (June 18-23).``

At the pre-scheduled North-EU Foreign Minister meeting, the chief delegates Baik Nam-Soon, the North Korean Foreign Minister, and Louis Michel, the Belgian Foreign Minister, will discuss the general issues including the additional amity negotiations, the North Korean weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and the economic cooperation.

Ambassador Rouvroy also added that, ``Considering the remarks of the North Korean authorities to observe the 6.15 Joint Declaration, I thought to myself that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il will visit Seoul.``

Kim Young-Sik spear@donga.com